


Just Protégés

by HyourinmaruIce



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Memories, Mentor/Protégé, Painting, Photography, Pictures, prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-22
Updated: 2015-07-30
Packaged: 2018-04-05 14:34:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4183497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HyourinmaruIce/pseuds/HyourinmaruIce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based off the idea of immortals/longer lived beings taking pictures/paintings of those important to them</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Might do a follow up, might not  
> I'm debating.

            Garnet found the room one day, when Rose is still alive and laughing, tucked away where no water might leak in and Amethyst wouldn’t look. It was well kept, dusted, and the lighting was soft but still bright enough to illuminate the entire room.

            It wasn’t a large room, by any means, but it was cozy. Bare of furniture, with the walls covered so there was no determining the color beneath. A few spots of wall might have shown here or there, but there was too much else for the eye to fall on and get distracted by.

            She left without a word and without bothering anything in the room. A memory of Rose’s room, just like this one, came to mind but she had a feeling Pearl had done this before and given Rose the idea; especially so, seeing as Rose had only modern mementos, and this one had memories almost as old as Pearl herself.

            It was a different story when Amethyst and Steven were hanging out, relaxing and diving into pools again. He knew better than to dive into Pearl’s room, that hadn’t gone well last time. They were sneaking, stumbling through the various parts of Amethyst’s room, when he came up to a waterfall.

            This waterfall wasn’t the same one he usually rode down; it was larger and more vigorous.  While having fully stopped to study it, Amethyst came barreling into him and knocked him into the pool beneath… which is when he discovered that the pool was actually a mirage and he fell straight into the room below.

            Amethyst called his name, but he was too stunned by what was around him.

            Pictures, paintings, all of different people, some stood alone and some had Pearl smiling in them as well, it was very odd. As he looked around, one caught his eye. It was Connie, she was smiling and Pearl was looking at her affectionately, proudly, with a single hand on her shoulder. Connie was grinning into the camera, with a sword swung over the shoulder Pearl wasn’t touching.

            Connie hadn’t told him about that picture.

            “Woah! Steven, lets get out of here. I’m not sure Pearl wouldn’t tear us apart for this,” Amethyst lands beside him with a thump, looking almost as panicked as when she thought Garnet was going to kill them.

            “Amethyst!” He pulls at her arm, dragging her over to the wall, “Look! It’s Connie… I wonder why she didn’t tell me about this…” Amethyst is pulling against him, just a little, and he’s pouting at her with that adorable face, “I want to be in a picture with Pearl too!”

            “Look,” Then Amethyst yanks her hand away, and crosses her arms, “These aren’t just people… alright? They’re… like Rose’s human friends, only they’re Pearl’s. Except… she didn’t see them as humans. Or friends really… but… she was proud of them. Every one of them, but they kept dying, or falling apart, or, and this is even worse to her, she had to leave them behind. Most of these people had either taught her something about something, or she taught them how to use a sword.”

            Amethyst is explaining, almost like she’s heard this from someone that knew what they were talking about when it came to this room, “Rose said to leave it alone if we ever found it, but tell her because she really wanted to see if Pearl actually got along with humans…” Then Amethyst’s hair is covering her eyes, “It was important to her to know that, because P didn’t always mention her protégés.”

            “Oh,” Is all Steven can say in response for a few seconds, contemplating the wall in front of him, “Is that why Connie’s picture is the only one dated from the past century?”

            Amethyst looks shocked, like she’s unsure what to say, but she says something anyway, “Who was a century ago?”

            “This guy!” Steven then points out the picture, it’s older, and black and white. There’s something in his demeanor that says he might enjoy hunting.

            Amethyst leans in over Steven’s shoulder, “Weird, we thought that was Rose’s friend. Who’s that with him?”

            “Was he cool?”

            Amethyst shrugs, “I mean, he knew space. He was pretty cool to Pearl when he did that, guess we shoulda known.”

            “You really should have,” The voice comes from behind them, and they both freeze in place. Amethyst looks terrified as she turns around, but Steven is smiling.

            “Hi Pearl!” He waves and Pearl smiles at him. She’s glassy eyed, almost like she’s not really there, but she turns to Amethyst and glares just enough that they known she’s alive.

            “Look, P, I said we should leave when we came dow—“

            Pearl cuts her off, “I don’t blame you for this Amethyst, it was obviously going to happen one day. Might as well be after one of Steven’s friends gets a picture on my walls.”

            Amethyst glances between Steven and Pearl, “Right.”

            Then she’s right by them, pulling the picture away from the wall, and crouching in front of Steven, “See the lady standing beside him?”

            “Yeah,” he see’s her more clearly now. She’s pretty, shorter than the man by a good foot or so, and she looks happy.

            Pearl smiles, “That was my protégé. See, he liked to boast and say things, but it was really her who knew them. Her name was...,” Pearl hesitates, “Well I’ll tell you later. She did all these great things for humans, including opening up whole branches of science. But, this man stole that from her. He wouldn’t even let me take a picture with her, he was afraid people would discover what he’d done.”

            “Oh cool! So she was into space like you?” Steven begins to look at the other photographs around the room, “That’s so cool, Pearl! Can you tell me about some of your other friends?”

            Amethyst watches as Pearl smiles, slowly, a bit wider with every date he reads aloud to himself. She wonders if Rose would have reacted like that… She knows Rose wouldn’t have. Maybe… maybe it was a good thing Steven was here, looking at Pearl’s people, rather than Rose.

            She shook that thought from her mind and scoffed aloud, “What a sappy room, I’mma go do something more fun. Steven, wanna come to get motor oil? I’ll make us some mean sandwiches.”

            But he is grinning, and laughing as Pearl saunters up to him and begins to recite stories of each photograph he touches.

            Amethyst gives a small smile and leaves without them noticing.

            “Tell me about this one!”


	2. More Details

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She's on the internet, and it's a little weird.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those asking - To See Stars is going to continue! I just had to consolidate ideas after the Steven Bomb, incorporate more of Peridots new personality, and redesign a couple things to perhaps get an idea for Sardonyx and other fusions to be brought in. Maybe. I'm not sure yet.
> 
> This is gunna have ONE more chapter for those interested. Thanks for asking for a continuation.

He finds her, on the internet, in pictures that are black and white. Her smile is wide, grinning with teeth flashing and bright eyes that make Steven think she was the mischievous sort. The images perfectly match Pearl’s photos… except…

 

She has a cult following. People, like Ronaldo, all clamoring around and pointing out the pictures she’s in. Some when the president, some with famous scientists, some with just random people that lived… years apart. _Years._

 

Steven looks up the people, sees them, and recognizes them from Pearl’s wall. Each laughing, playing… always smiling when they were together. Sometimes there would be a sad one, but it was always with Pearl being supportive on the side, kneeling down and touching their knee gently. Like when he’s hurt and she’s helping him, she helps them.

 

He’s confused though, so he heads back to Pearl’s room (he’d gotten permission from her to come and see them) and checks the dates on each of them. Scrawled on the back, they match when he thought they did. They have little notes on some, with Pearl’s neat handwriting detailing the reason behind the photo or just little comments on the person themselves. Most, or actually all but one, have a note regarding  the person except for … hmm

 

Garnet doesn’t have an explanation, being just as confused about Pearl’s time traveling friend. Amethyst is confused, not having noticed that particular person before. When he reminds her of the photo on Pearl’s wall, she draws a blank. Remembering the guy, not the girl…

 

Apparently she’s Connie’s idol.

 

“Hey Pearl?” He remembers a bit of what Pearl told him, a little bit in places that weren’t quite all there in his mind, “Can you tell me more about her?”

 

He holds up the picture he printed off the internet and watches as Pearl’s pencil-thin eyebrows arch gracefully, “Where’d you get that?”

 

She isn’t displaying much emotion, and it disturbs him. 

 

“Internet.”

 

She hums, nods a little and gently takes the photo from him, “I already told you about her, what else do you want to know?”

 

“Was she a gem?” He bounces on the soles of his feet, excited, wanting to know and leaning forward with a grin but… Pearl freezes. Her entire body still in an alien way that reminds Steven just how different gems are.

 

Then, in a burst of light and color that makes him grin, she laughs. Full body, using her entire being, it spreads from the tips of her toes and flashes out of her gem in an array of colors.

 

“A gem? Goodness!” She’s choking back her laughter, trying to answer his question by placing a hand over her chest in a way she learned from the humans around her, “No. She wasn’t a Gem, Steven. She was… human. I suppose, a subspecies in the least.”

 

His confusion grows, “Subspecies?”

 

Pearl nods, taking a place on the couch and tapping lightly beside her. He scrambles upward and settles in, “Most of my protégés were subspecies. In fact,” Pearl winks at Steven and he giggles as she wraps an arm around him and pulls him into her lap, “Connie and the Knights, who were more comrades than protégés if you recall, were the only humans I have trained that weren’t segregated from the rest of the species.”

 

Steven bounces and grabs the laptop on the table, feeling Pearl’s strong hands holding him and preventing him from tumbling forward and out of her lap, “Segregated?”

 

Pearl begins to define the word, and he opens his lap top while forgetting to listen. Best just pretend to hear, he decides. 

 

“So what subspecies was she?” It isn’t like he understand what Pearl means by the term subspecies, but she’s already explaining segregation. Might as well hear the other stuff too.

 

Pearl stills, “Oh dear, I remembered just five minutes ago what were they called… Humans have such funny names, really she should have been called  _nocte furores_ but they called her… what was it…..?”

 

He’s confused by the “ _nocte furores_ ” or whatever it is, but he lets Pearl murmur and contemplate the meaning while he googles subspecies.

 

“Dragon! Yes, a Weredragon to be specific.” Pearl laughs, “If she were just a dragon she wouldn’t be a subspecies now would she. How silly I was just then.”

 

Steven whips around and yells at the top of his lungs, “THAT’S AWESOME!”

 

Pearl blinks in reply. 

 


	3. How They Met

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to write more about the dragon woman... So... How Pearl met her weredragon

Pearl met her when she was young, a child, with a naive heart that thought forget-me-nots were the saddest flower. Her skin was white like ivory, and Pearl couldn’t help but compare their shades to one another like a piece of paper placed against porcelain to see how the two compared. Pearl was lighter, but only noticeable to the eyes of someone who could also see the brown of her eyes from across the room.

Upon closer inspection, the brown was ringed with blue and speckled with black so that every-time she laughed, her eyes danced.

It wasn’t unusual to see someone that intrigued her at these events Rose brought her to, in fact it was common, but this felt different. Like watching a wolf hunt prey, it was fascinating but mildly concerning for those close enough to be prey themselves. Pearl stuck to the edges of the room, as she usually did, and indulged the man who brought her wine by taking a glass but not a sip. That was too much.

She waited, watching as the woman she’d spotted almost…. copied her. Oh sure, the woman had no idea of Pearl’s existence outside of the fact that they were at the same party together, a gala of sorts with Rose the guest of honor, but that meant nothing. 

It wasn’t until Pearl heard her voice that she was reminded of the snow dragon she’d met once upon a time... white expanses of snow, filling the landscape came to mind. Howling winds that left Pearl breathless and frozen, standing still even as the woman came closer, twirling around the edges of the room.

They bumped into one another, and Pearl forced a smile. 

“Oh, forgive me,” The woman smiled, warmth radiating from her as she laughed and tipped back a little bit of whatever she was drinking, “I seem to be enjoying myself a little too much. Forgive me, please, I didn’t mean to.”

Pearl listens, letting the cold embrace of her words hit her gem with a feeling of…. warmth. Reminded of snow, but feeling of the summer day when the storm clouds have yet to roll in and cause a mess, “You speak rather inelegantly for someone who is attending the… gala here.”

“I could say the same of you.” And there is mischief in her eye, a tapping of nails against glass, and a smile that is as white as her skin. The woman tucks a few dark strands of hair behind her ear, before raising the glass she holds a little higher as if in salute and taking a sip, “What brings you here?”

Pearl tips her glass towards Rose, “Rose Quartz, I’m her… escort.”

The woman’s eyebrows raise together in a look of incredulous belief, “Oh, lover or master?”

Pearl chokes a little on the air that restricts her throat.

A chuckle comes from the woman, and Pearl feels the blush spread across her face.

“Lover and master then, I can’t say I blame you. Rose is… very nice.” The woman sips from her drink and winks at Pearl. Laughter, from Rose, forces Pearl to realize what had attracted her attention to the woman in the first place. A feeling, a recognition of sameness.

“Indeed she is, but she is occupied with another as of the moment. I suppose I shall be alone tonight.” The bait is laid, a smile (genuine and bright) crossing Pearl’s face as she purposefully sips to hide the look in her eyes and the non breathe that speedily comes from her chest.

“I suppose, or…” Hook, “you could,” Line, “come home with me.”

And sinker.

* * *

She could never tell Steven that story though. Of meeting a woman too young to have interacted with her in such a manner and of times that Rose flirted with people of every shape and size and Pearl was left sometimes more jealous than she should be. 

So instead she told him of the time she and the young woman had crossed swords and how Pearl had come to discover just what kind of dragon the woman was. Never the beginning, never the end, but a few light stories in the middle. 

Steven loved those. 


End file.
